Hornchurch 1915: Essex Sheet 79.15 (Old O.S. Maps of Essex)

Detailed map of Hornchurch Essex (New Series) sheet 79.15. Historical introduction by Tony Clifford. This detailed map has Hornchurch High Street in the NE; the sheetlines are not very kind and so Church Street is cut off by the margins, and the church itself beyond the map; but coverage continues south along Station Road to Hornchurch station and west to Rainham Road. It therefore really covers the western part of a town which in 1886 was called "one of the quaintest towns one could wish to see, with its straggling streets... and its general disregard for the amenities of locomotion". It still remained much the same in 1915, and west of the town this map portrays a rural landscape. Station Road, Abbs Cross Road, Hornchurch Road, Rainham Road are the principal roads crossing the map, each with just a handful of buildings. Top centre are Hornchurch Cottage Homes, developed in 1886 for the orphans 'and other needy' children of St Leonard, Shoreditch.